Disc niche thought

I just had a though about disc. Currently they use bulk heals and absorbs usually resulting is heal snipe. What if the niche of HoTs was made the broad feature of Priests and rather make Holy into a Large Heal / HoT spec.

Would make it less annoying given that with heals and the time given by a bubble before you pop it a heal can be lain down but if it were say a HoT it would make it less a crunch moment to pop it.

He slipped out of his royal garments, left eternity to enter time, divinity to wrap himself in humanity.
The sea of glass, for the ocean of separation. He left peace, and for the first time felt pain.
Because the very hands that held the stars were now sentenced to wear my scars.

Disc, as the only healer, fills the niche of preventing damage from happening by thinking 10 seconds ahead, and shielding people who will take damage.
The fact that this leads to "snipe healing" doesn't mean it's a bad niche. It means your disc is doing well if people are complaining.
Remember, disc is absolutely fucking horrible at healing up people after damage has been taken. You win some, you lose some.

no because druids are the HoT masters, if they made you into a large HoT class druids would still have to be better so you would lose out in the long run.

It would be a dual niche though. Main part being Shielding with the actual health regenerating for solo healing coming from HoTs. Druids toolkit id designed for Hots and Direct heals which is a different niche anyway.

Originally Posted by Dracodraco

Disc, as the only healer, fills the niche of preventing damage from happening by thinking 10 seconds ahead, and shielding people who will take damage.
The fact that this leads to "snipe healing" doesn't mean it's a bad niche. It means your disc is doing well if people are complaining.
Remember, disc is absolutely fucking horrible at healing up people after damage has been taken. You win some, you lose some.

This wouldn't change much to their ability to heal people then. Hell it would make other healers lives easier.

He slipped out of his royal garments, left eternity to enter time, divinity to wrap himself in humanity.
The sea of glass, for the ocean of separation. He left peace, and for the first time felt pain.
Because the very hands that held the stars were now sentenced to wear my scars.

Disc's current absorb niche isn't inherently problematic. The issue is that disc can just put out too many absorbs too often. If disc priests got 20-30% of their healing from absorbs and absorb options were limited to pre-shielding and Spirit Shell, absorbs wouldn't be problematic like they are now. Of course, this would require disc priests to get triage healing options that they currently lack.

Discs niche to me is more utility than healing anyways. People claim they are overpowered simply due to a meter that really does not matter. If your main source of healing is absorbtions, then of course your numbers will look good due to rarely any overhealing.

That being said, disc does shine in utility. They provide a tank CD, a raid-wide CD, damage mitigating shields, snares (all priests), movement enhancing (all priests), damage. During progression, I'd wager discs strong points are those utilities rather than raw healing. They are poor at raid recovery (intense damage incoming). They can help mitigate that damage, but again they are terrible at helping the raid recover. Then, as disc healers get more gear and start farming bosses, their numbers really start to shine again because of how absorbtions work.

This isn't me bashing disc or any other type of healer (I play a disc main and it's my favorite), but more so me trying to share my viewpoint at what I think disc truly shines at. Disc really gets a bad name due to sheer number of people who play disc in LFR/Normal and literally spam smite/penance the whole time and that is it.

Discs niche(s) are dmg preventing/absorb dmg but the last years also non-neglectable added dps. You can not go around the fact these are very (I would say the most, maybe together with Shamans) valuable niches, and I am ok with that as Holy, but... then healing output need to be the weakness, and atm that isn't really the case.

Discs niche(s) are dmg preventing/absorb dmg but the last years also non-neglectable added dps. You can not go around the fact these are very (I would say the most, maybe together with Shamans) valuable niches, and I am ok with that as Holy, but... then healing output need to be the weakness, and atm that isn't really the case.

healing output as disc is their weakness due to only around 40% of their healing is actual healing, absorbs are technically not healing. Disc isn't as OP as everyone thinks though an equal geared one combined with a disc will on most fights do almost equal healing and only pull ahead slightly. The main benefit however is the extra 100k plus dps that they bring combined with equal healing output, if their actual healing was any weaker then the raid is too low and needs recovery then the raid would be even more screwed than current, a good disc can still recover well but expends a great deal of mana to do so.

healing output as disc is their weakness due to only around 40% of their healing is actual healing

That's just semantics. You have to count absorbs as healing when evaluating healing output because they effectively contribute to healing.

That aside, I agree with the above poster who said that if disc keeps its current design then its weakness should be healing output. However, a healer whose weakness is healing would be kind of problematic. I think it makes more sense to just reduce the portion of disc's healing that comes from absorbs. As long as disc can regularly absorb damage spikes, there's no reason for it to get most of its healing from absorbs. In between SS cooldowns and the occasional shield spam, disc priests should do straight healing just like everyone else.

As for atonement, it should go back to being what it was at the start of Cataclysm - something to do during lulls in damage.

Easiest solution is balance Disc as it was at the start of MoP when every priest was Holy. Allow Holy paladin to spec into absorb. Ie. by default Illuminated Healing is a hot but he can spec into it making it a (far less strong) absorb. Done. Alternatives are making absorbs into a dot like the monk tank's Stagger, a health increase like resto shaman Ancestral Vigor, or a hot (based on incoming damage) like mage Temporal Shield.

Originally Posted by waldor22

no because druids are the HoT masters, if they made you into a large HoT class druids would still have to be better so you would lose out in the long run.

Druid and monk can turn their hot into a burst. Ie. Genesis & Mushroom & Uplift.

Originally Posted by Dracodraco

Disc, as the only healer, fills the niche of preventing damage from happening by thinking 10 seconds ahead, and shielding people who will take damage.
The fact that this leads to "snipe healing" doesn't mean it's a bad niche. It means your disc is doing well if people are complaining.
Remember, disc is absolutely fucking horrible at healing up people after damage has been taken. You win some, you lose some.

For most of the WoW community it means the Disc is overgearing the encounter. As people learn the encounter people learn to anticipate the damage patterns and as people gear up Disc will start to shine more and more. Not particularly a smart design...